Taking responsibility for the tragedy at a disco in Bucharest that claimed 32 lives, Romanian Prime Minister stepped down from his post; 20,000 had come out on streets demanding his resignation
protest
Bucharest: Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced his resignation yesterday over a nightclub blaze that killed 32 people, a day after more than 20,000 people rallied in Bucharest to demand he quit.
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Furious mob: Demonstrators amassed on Tuesday evening in Bucharest’s Victory Square, calling for Ponta’s resignation. Pics/AFP
Resigning Prime Minister Victor Ponta proposed Defence Minister Mircea Dusa as his successor.
“I am stepping down as Prime Minister,” he said in a television broadcast. He said, “I hope the government’s resignation will satisfy the people who came out in the streets. I have to acknowledge the legitimate anger of the people” He said it was right that responsibility for Friday’s tragedy was taken by top officials and not just the three bosses of the Colectiv disco in Bucharest.”
Victor Ponta, Romanian PM
Demonstrators massed on Tuesday evening in Bucharest’s Victory Square, the seat of government, calling for Ponta’s resignation and that of his interior minister, Gabriel Oprea.
History repeated itself
The marchers chanted ‘Ponta resign’ and ‘killers’, and some waved the national flag with holes in it — a symbol of the popular revolution 25 years ago that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The toll from the nightclub fire would have been far worse, but for the heroism of two men, physicist Claudiu Petre and drummer Adrian Rugina, who went several times into the burning club to rescue trapped revellers, only to die themselves.
Witnesses said a fireworks display triggered the blaze at the Colectiv, which was located in a former shoe factory. The inferno sparked a deadly stampede. Nearly 200 people were injured in the tragedy.
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